Entrepreneurial Opportunities of Refugees in Germany, France, and Ireland: Multiple Embeddedness Framework
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Entrepreneurial Opportunities of Refugees in Germany, France, and Ireland: Multiple Embeddedness Framework Aki Harima 1
& Fabrice
Periac 2
& Tony
Murphy 3 & Salomé Picard 2
Accepted: 6 November 2020/ # The Author(s) 2020
Abstract Recently, the entrepreneurial potential of refugees has received growing attention from scholars and policymakers. However, the literature on refugee entrepreneurship suffers from the fragmentation of previous research findings, which has been mainly attributed to the fact that refugees have heterogeneous backgrounds. Tackling this challenge, this study conceptualized the framework for the multiple embeddedness of refugee entrepreneurs by applying and extending the concept of mixed embeddedness. Based on 50 semi-structured interviews with refugee entrepreneurs who relocated to Germany, France, and Ireland, we identified six patterns in which refugees’ multiple embeddedness and their actions as entrepreneurial agencies interacted to develop entrepreneurial opportunities: (i) value creation with homeland resources, (ii) acting as transnational middleman minorities, (iii) integration facilitation, (iv) qualification transfers, (v) homeland-problem solving, and (vi) creative innovation. This study contributes to the literature on refugee entrepreneurship by considering multiple contexts in which refugees can be embedded in and by elaborating on the interactions between opportunity structure emerging within the multiple embeddedness, actions, and capabilities of refugees as entrepreneurial agencies. Keywords Refugee entrepreneurship . Multiple embeddedness . Entrepreneurial
opportunities . Refugees in Europe . Transnationalism . Forcible displacement
* Aki Harima harima@uni–bremen.de
1
Chair in Small Business & Management (LEMEX), University of Bremen, Enrique-Schmidt-Str. 1, 28359 Bremen, Germany
2
Paris School of Business, 59 Rue nationale, 75013 Paris, France
3
The Head of Quality Enhancement and Innovation in Teaching and Learning, Dublin Business School, Dublin, Ireland
International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal
Introduction The world faces one of the most critical challenges in modern history related to global forced displacement. By the end of 2019, approximately 79.5 million individuals were forcibly displaced globally. The vast majority of refugees and asylum seekers1 originate from emerging countries, and more than two-thirds (68%) of all worldwide refugees come from five countries: Syria (6.6 million), Venezuela (3.7 million), Afghanistan (2.7 million), South Sudan (2.2 million), and Myanmar (1.1 million) (UNHCR 2020). Many forcibly displaced individuals do not end their journey in neighboring countries but continue until they arrive in Europe. In 2019, Germany was the world’s thirdlargest recipient of refugees, with 142,500 new asylum claims, followed by France, with 123,900 claims (UNHCR 2020). The surge of incoming refugees poses a critical challenge to policymakers in European countries who face increasingly urgent demands to facilitate the socio-econo
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